Nigerian striker Victor Osimhen has voluntarily relinquished his role as Napoli’s penalty taker, a decision prompted by a recent string of controversial TikTok videos posted on the club’s social media platforms.
Osimhen found himself deeply angered by two particularly offensive videos that were uploaded to Napoli’s TikTok account. One of these videos derisively portrayed him as “begging” for a penalty, while the other mocked his missed penalty in a Serie A match against Bologna at the end of September.
These videos caused an uproar among Osimhen’s supporters and generated significant controversy. In response to the backlash, one of Napoli’s social media executives departed from the club.
In the aftermath of this incident, Napoli participated in three matches, each of which featured penalty opportunities. However, Osimhen chose not to take any of these penalties. Instead, the responsibility fell to Piotr Zielinski in the match against Udinese and the Champions League clash with Real Madrid at the Maradona Stadium. Additionally, Matteo Politano stepped up to take an injury-time penalty in the game that was played between these two fixtures against Lecce.
According to reports from La Repubblica, reported via TMW, it was Osimhen himself who decided to take himself off penalty duty, having felt unnecessarily mocked by the club’s social media team.
Osimhen had scored two of the three spot-kicks he took in Serie A during the title-winning 2022/23 season, and had scored one of the two he had taken in the early stages of the 2023/24 campaign.
